Installing wxWidgets 2.6.0 ----------------------------------------------------------- This is wxWidgets 2.6.0 for Microsoft Windows 9x/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows CE. These installation notes can be found in docs/msw/install.txt in your wxWidgets distribution. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you experience problems installing, please re-read this instructions and other related files (changes.txt, readme.txt, FAQ) carefully before mailing wx-users. Preferably, try to fix the problem first and then upload a patch to SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/patch/?group_id=9863 Please report bugs using the SourceForge bug tracker: http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=9863 Unarchiving ============================================================ A setup program is provided (setup.exe) to automatically copy files to a directory on your hard disk. Do not install into a path that contains spaces. The setup program contains the following: - All common, generic and MSW-specific wxWidgets source; - samples and demos; - documentation in MS HTML Help format; - makefiles for most Windows compilers, plus CodeWarrior, BC++ and VC++ IDE files; - JPEG library source; - TIFF library source; - Object Graphics Library, Tex2RTF, wxSTC, etc. Alternatively, you may unarchive the .zip form by hand: wxMSW-x.y.z.zip where x.y.z is the version number. Unarchive the required files plus any optional documentation files into a suitable directory such as c:\wx. General installation notes ========================== If installing from the CVS server, copy include/wx/msw/setup0.h to include/wx/msw/setup.h and edit the resulting file to choose the features you would like to compile wxWidgets with[out]. Compilation =========== The following sections explain how to compile wxWidgets with each supported compiler. Search for one of Microsoft/Borland/Watcom/Symantec/Metrowerks/ Cygwin/Mingw32 to quickly locate the instructions for your compiler. All makefiles and project are located in build\msw directory. Where compiled files are stored ------------------------------- After successful compilation you'll find the libraries in a subdirectory of lib directory named after the compiler and DLL/static settings. A couple of examples: lib\vc_lib VC++ compiled static libraries lib\vc_dll VC++ DLLs lib\bcc_lib Static libraries for Borland C++ lib\wat_dll Watcom C++ DLLs Names of compiled wxWidgets libraries follow this scheme: libraries that don't depend on GUI components begin with "wxbase" followed by version number and letters indicating if the library is compiled as Unicode ('u') and/or debug build ('d'). Last component of them name is name of wxWidgets component (unless you built the library as single monolithic library; look for "Configuring the build" below). This is a typical set of release ANSI build libraries (release versions on left, debug on right side): wxbase25.lib wxbase25d.lib wxbase25_net.lib wxbase25d_net.lib wxbase25_xml.lib wxbase25d_xml.lib wxmsw25_core.lib wxmsw25d_core.lib wxmsw25_html.lib wxmsw25d_html.lib wxmsw25_adv.lib wxmsw25d_adv.lib Their Unicode debug counterparts in wxUniversal build would be wxbase25ud.lib wxbase25ud_net.lib wxbase25ud_xml.lib (notice these libs are same for wxUniv and wxMSW) wxmswuniv25ud_core.lib wxmswuniv25ud_html.lib wxmswuniv25ud_adv.lib These directories also contain subdirectory with wx/setup.h header. This subdirectory is named after port, Unicode, wxUniv and debug settings and you must add it to include paths when compiling your application. Some examples: lib\vc_lib\msw\wx\setup.h VC++ static, wxMSW lib\vc_lib\mswud\wx\setup.h VC++ static, wxMSW, Unicode, debug lib\vc_lib\mswunivd\wx\setup.h VC++ static, wxUniversal, debug Below are compiler specific notes followed by customizing instructions that apply to all compilers (search for "Configuring the build"). Microsoft Visual C++ compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- You may wish to visit http://wiki.wxwindows.org/wiki.pl?MSVC for a more informal and more detailed description of the process summarized below. Please note that the VC++ 6.0 project files will work for VC++ .NET also. Also note that you can make the project files work with VC++ 5.0 but you'll need to edit .dsp file by hand before this is possible (change the version in the .dsp file header from 6.0 to 5.0). Using project files (VC++ 6 and later): 1. Unarchive wxWidgets-x.y.z-vc.zip, the VC++ 6 project makefiles (already included in wxMSW-x.y.z.zip and the setup version). 2. Open build\msw\wx.dsw, which has configurations for static compilation or DLL compilation, and each of these available in Unicode/ANSI, Debug/Release and wxUniversal or native variations. Normally you'll use a static linking ANSI configuration. Choose the Win32 Debug or Win32 Release configuration (or any other that suits your needs) and use Batch Build to compile _all_ projects. If you know you won't need some of the libraries (i.e. html part), you don't have to compile it. It will also produce similar variations on jpeg.lib, png.lib, tiff.lib, zlib.lib, and regex.lib. If you want to build DLLs, you have to either build them one by one in proper order (jpeg, png, tiff, zlib, regex, expat, base, core, the rest in any order) or to use wx_dll.dsw workspace which has correct dependencies. 3. Open a sample project file, choose a configuration such as Win32 Debug using Build | Set Active Configuration..., and compile. The project files don't use precompiled headers, to save disk space, but you can switch PCH compiling on for greater speed. NOTE: you may also use samples/samples.dsw to access all sample projects without opening each workspace individually. You can use the Batch Build facility to make several samples at a time. Using makefiles: 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type: 'nmake -f makefile.vc' to make the wxWidgets core library as release DLL. See "Configuring the build" for instruction how to build debug or static libraries. 2. Change directory to samples and type 'nmake -f makefile.vc' to make all the samples. You can also make them individually. Makefile notes: Use the 'clean' target to clean all objects, libraries and executables. Note (1): if you wish to use templates, please edit include\wx\msw\setup.h and set wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS to 0. Without this, the redefinition of 'new' will cause problems in the headers. Alternatively, #undef new before including template headers. You will also need to set wxUSE_IOSTREAMH to 0 if you will be using templates, to avoid the non-template stream files being included within wxWidgets. Note (2): libraries and applications generated with makefiles and project files are now (hopefully) compatible where static libraries are concerned, but please exercise caution nevertheless and if possible, use one method or the other. Note (3): some crash problems can be due to inconsistent compiler options. If strange/weird/impossible things start to happen please check (dumping IDE project file as makefile and doing text comparison if necessary) that the project settings, especially the list of defined symbols, struct packing, etc. are exactly the same for all items in the project. After this, delete everything (including PCH) and recompile. Note (4): to create your own IDE files, copy .dsp and .dsw files from an existing wxWidgets sample and adapt them, or visit http://wiki.wxwindows.org/wiki.pl?MSVC. Borland C++ 5.0/5.5 compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- Compiling using the makefiles (updated 24 Sept 02): 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type 'make -f makefile.bcc' to make the wxWidgets core library. Ignore the compiler warnings. This produces a couple of libraries in the lib\bcc_lib directory. 2. Change directory to a sample or demo such as samples\minimal, and type 'make -f makefile.bcc'. This produces a windows exe file - by default in the bcc_mswd subdirectory. Note (1): the wxWidgets makefiles assume dword structure alignment. Please make sure that your own project or makefile settings use the same alignment, or you could experience mysterious crashes. To change the alignment, change CPPFLAGS in build\msw\config.bcc. Note (2): if you get undefined _SQL... symbols at link time, either install odbc32.lib from the BC++ CD-ROM into your BC++ lib directory, or set wxUSE_ODBC to 0 in include\wx\msw\setup.h and recompile wxWidgets. The same applies if compiling using the IDE. Note (3): If you wish debug messages to be sent to the console in debug mode, edit makefile.bcc and change /aa to /Tpe in link commands. Compiling using the IDE files for Borland C++ 5.0: not supported - please use version 2.4.1 (using the make utility in commandline mode works fine_ Compiling using CBuilder (v1-v6): not supported - please use version 2.4.1 (using the make utility in commandline mode works fine_ ** REMEMBER ** In all of your wxWidgets applications, your source code should include the following preprocessor directive: #ifdef __BORLANDC__ #pragma hdrstop #endif (check the samples -- e.g., \wx2\samples\minimal\minimal.cpp -- for more details) Borland 16 Bit compilation for Windows 3.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- The last version of wxWidgets to support 16-bit compilation with Borland was 2.2.7 - Please download and read the instructions in that release Watcom C++ 10.6/11 and OpenWatcom compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Change directory to build\msw. Type 'wmake -f makefile.wat' to make the wxWidgets core library. 2. Change directory to samples\minimal and type 'wmake -f makefile.wat' to make this sample. Repeat for other samples of interest. Note (1): if your installation of Watcom doesn't have odbc32.lib file and you need it (i.e. you have wxUSE_ODBC=1), you can use the file from lib\watcom directory. See the notes in that directory. Note (2): if variant.cpp is compiled with date/time class options, the linker gives up. So the date/time option is switched off for Watcom C++. Also, wxAutomationObject is not compiled with Watcom C++ 10. Note (3): RawBitmaps won't work at present because they use unsupported template classes Note (4): if Watcom can't read the precompiled header when building a sample, try deleting .pch files in build\msw\wat_* and compiling the sample again. Metrowerks CodeWarrior compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. CodeWarrior Pro 7 project files in XML format are already included in wxMSW-2.6.0.zip and the setup version. 2. Review the file include\wx\msw\setup.h (or include\wx\msw\setup0.h if you are working from the CVS version) to make sure the settings reflect what you want. If you aren't sure, leave it alone and go with the default settings. A few notes: - Don't use wxUSE_DEBUG_NEW_ALWAYS: it doesn't mix well with MSL - wxUSE_GLOBAL_MEMORY_OPERATORS works, but memory leak reports will be rather confusing due to interactions with the MSL ANSI and runtime libs. 3. The project file to build the Win32 wxWidgets libraries relies on the Batch File Runner plug-in. This plug-in is not installed as part of a normal CW7 installation. However, you can find this plug-in on the CodeWarrior Reference CD, in the Thrill Seekers folder; it's call the "Batch File Post Linker". 4. If you choose not to install the Batch File Runner plug-in, then you need to do the following by hand: (1) Create the directories lib\cw7msw\include\wx and copy the file include\wx\msw\setup.h (or include\wx\msw\setup0.h if you are working from the CVS version) to lib\cw7msw\include\wx\setup.h (2) Create the directories lib\cw7mswd\include\wx and copy the file include\wx\msw\setup.h (or include\wx\msw\setup0.h if you are working from the CVS version) to lib\cw7mswd\include\wx\setup.h 5. Import src\wxWidgetsW7.xml to create the project file wxWidgetsW7.mcp. Store this project file in directory src. You may get warnings about not being able to find certain project paths; ignore these warnings, the appropriate paths will be created during the build by the Batch File Runner. 6. Choose the wxlib Win32 debug or wxlib Win32 Release target and build. You will get some warnings about hidden virtual functions, illegal conversions from const pointers to pointers, etc., all of which you can safely ignore. ***Note: if you get errors that the compiler can't find "wx/setup.h", just stop the build and build again. These errors occur because sometimes the compiler starts doing its thing before the copying of setup.h has completed. 7. The following libraries will be produced depending on chosen target: - wx_x86.lib ANSI Release (static) - wx_x86_d.lib ANSI Debug (static) 8. Sorry, I haven't had time yet to create and test unicode or DLL versions. Volunteers for this are welcome (as neither DLLs nor unicode builds are big priorities for me ;). 9. CodeWarrior Pro7 project files (in XML format) are also provided for some of the samples. In particular, there are project files for the minimal, controls, dialogs, dnd, nd docview samples. You can use these project files as templates for the other samples and for your own projects. - For example, to make a project file for the "grid" sample, just copy the project file for the "minimal" sample, minimalW7.mcp (made by importing minimalW7.xml into CodeWarrior), into the sample/grid directory, calling it gridW7.mcp. Open newgridW7.mcp and revise the project by deleting the files minimal.rc and minimal.cpp and adding the files griddemo.rc and griddemo.cpp. Build and run.... Cygwin/MinGW compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- wxWidgets supports Cygwin (formerly GnuWin32) betas and releases, and MinGW. Cygwin can be downloaded from: http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ and MinGW from: http://www.mingw.org/ Both Cygwin and MinGW can be used with configure (assuming you have MSYS installed in case of MinGW). You will need new enough MinGW version, preferably MinGW 2.0 (ships with gcc3) or at least 1.0 (gcc-2.95.3). GCC versions older than 2.95.3 don't work; you can use wxWidgets 2.4 with them. NOTE: some notes specific to old Cygwin (< 1.1.x) are at the end of this section (see OLD VERSIONS) There are two methods of compiling wxWidgets, by using the makefiles provided or by using 'configure'. Retrieve and install the latest version of Cygwin, or MinGW, as per the instructions with either of these packages. If using MinGW, you can download the add-on MSYS package to provide Unix-like tools that you'll need to build wxWidgets using configure. Using makefiles directly ---------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: The makefile.gcc makefiles are for compilation under MinGW using native make and Windows command interpreter (command.com/cmd.exe), they won't work in other environments (such as UNIX or Unix-like, e.g. MSYS; you have to use configure instead) Here are the steps required using the provided makefiles: - If you are using gcc-2.95, edit build\msw\config.gcc and set the GCC_VERSION variable to "2.95". - If you are compiling with GCC 3.x using makefiles and with wxUSE_STL == 1 you need to manually add -DNO_GCC_PRAGMA to CXXFLAGS in config.gcc. - Use the makefile.gcc files for compiling wxWidgets and samples, e.g. to compile a debugging version of wxWidgets: > cd c:\wx\build\msw > make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug > cd c:\wx\samples\minimal > make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug (See below for more options.) Ignore the warning about the default entry point. - Use the 'strip' command to reduce executable/dll size (note that stripping an executable/dll will remove debug information!). All targets have 'clean' targets to allow removal of object files and other intermediate compiler files. Using configure ---------------------------------------------------------------- Instead of using the makefiles, you can use the configure system to generate appropriate makefiles, as used on Unix and Mac OS X systems. Change directory to the root of the wxWidgets distribution, make a build directory, and run configure and make in this directory. For example: cd $WXWIN mkdir build-debug cd build-debug ../configure --with-msw --enable-debug --enable-debug_gdb --disable-shared make make install % This step is optional, see note (8) below. cd samples/minimal make ./minimal.exe Notes: 1. See also the Cygwin/MinGW on the web site or CD-ROM for further information about using wxWidgets with these compilers. 2. libwx.a is 100 MB or more - but much less if compiled with no debug info (-g0) and level 4 optimization (-O4). 3. If you get a link error under MinGW 2.95.2 referring to: EnumDAdvise__11IDataObjectPP13IEnumSTATDATA@8 then you need to edit the file objidl.h at line 663 and add a missing PURE keyword: STDMETHOD(EnumDAdvise)(THIS_ IEnumSTATDATA**) PURE; 4. There's a bug in MinGW headers for some early distributions. in include/windows32/defines.h, where it says: #define LPSTR_TEXTCALLBACKA (LPSTR)-1L) it should say: #define LPSTR_TEXTCALLBACKA ((LPSTR)-1L) (a missing bracket). 5. OpenGL support should work with MinGW as-is. However, if you wish to generate import libraries appropriate either for the MS OpenGL libraries or the SGI OpenGL libraries, go to include/wx/msw/gl and use: dlltool -k -d opengl.def -llibopengl.a for the SGI DLLs, or dlltool -k -d opengl32.def -llibopengl32.a and similarly for glu[32].def. 6. The 'make install' step is optional, and copies files as follows: /usr/local/lib - wxmswXYZd.dll.a and wxmswXYZd.dll /usr/local/include/wx - wxWidgets header files /usr/local/bin - wx-config You may need to do this if using wx-config with the default root path. 7. With Cygwin, you can invoke gdb --nw myfile.exe to debug an executable. If there are memory leaks, they will be flagged when the program quits. You can use Cygwin gdb to debug MinGW executables. OLD VERSIONS: - Modify the file wx/src/cygnus.bat (or mingw32.bat or mingegcs.bat) to set up appropriate variables, if necessary mounting drives. Run it before compiling. - For Cygwin, make sure there's a \tmp directory on your Windows drive or bison will crash (actually you don't need bison for ordinary wxWidgets compilation: a pre-generated .c file is supplied). - If using GnuWin32 b18, you will need to copy windres.exe from e.g. the MinGW distribution, to a directory in your path. Symantec & DigitalMars C++ compilation ---------------------------------------------------------------- The DigitalMars compiler is a free succssor to the Symantec compiler and can be downloaded from http://www.digitalmars.com/ 1. You need to download and unzip in turn (later packages will overwrite older files) Digital Mars C/C++ Compiler Version 8.40 or later Basic utilities from http://www.digitalmars.com/download/freecompiler.html 2. Change directory to build\msw and type 'make -f makefile.dmc' to make the wxWidgets core library. 3. Change directory to samples\minimal and type 'make -f makefile.dmc' to make this sample. Most of the other samples also work. Note that if you don't have the files makefile.dmc you may create them yourself using bakefile tool according to the instructions in build\bakefiles\README: cd build\bakefiles bakefile_gen -f dmars -b wx.bkl bakefile_gen -f dmars -b ../../samples/minimal/minimal.bkl 16-bit compilation is no longer supported. Configuring the build ================================================================ So far the instructions only explained how to build release DLLs of wxWidgets and did not cover any configuration. It is possible to change many aspects of the build, including debug/release and ANSI/Unicode settings. All makefiles in build\msw directory use same options (with a few exceptions documented below) and the only difference between them is in object files and library directory names and in make invocation command. Changing the settings ---------------------------------------------------------------- There are two ways to modify the settings: either by passing the values as arguments when invoking make or by editing build\msw\config.$(compiler) file where $(compiler) is same extension as the makefile you use has (see below). The latter is good for setting options that never change in your development process (e.g. GCC_VERSION or VENDOR). If you want to build several versions of wxWidgets and use them side by side, the former method is better. Settings in config.* files are shared by all makefiles (samples, contrib, main library), but if you pass the options as arguments, you must use same arguments you used for the library when building samples or contrib libraries! Examples of invoking make in Unicode debug build (other options described below are set analogically): Visual C++: > nmake -f makefile.vc BUILD=debug UNICODE=1 Borland C++: > make -f makefile.bcc -DBUILD=debug -DUNICODE=1 (Note that you have to use -D to set the variable, unlike in other make tools!) Watcom C/C++: > wmake -f makefile.wat BUILD=debug UNICODE=1 MinGW using native makefiles: > mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc BUILD=debug UNICODE=1 MinGW using configure or Cygwin: > ./configure --enable-debug --enable-unicode (see ./configure --help on details; configure is not covered in this section) Brief explanation of options and possible values is in every build\msw\config.* file; more detailed description follows. Basic options ---------------------------------------------------------------- BUILD=release Builds release version of the library. It differs from default 'debug' in lack of appended 'd' in name of library, does not define __WXDEBUG__ and not include debug information compiled into object files and the executable. SHARED=1 Build shared libraries (DLLs). By default, DLLs are not built (SHARED=0). UNICODE=1 To build Unicode versions of the libraries, add UNICODE=1 to make invocation (default is UNICODE=0). If you want to be able to use Unicode version on Windows9x, you will need to set MSLU=1 as well. This option affect name of the library ('u' is appended) and the directory where the library and setup.h are store (ditto). WXUNIV=1 Build wxUniversal instead of native wxMSW (see http://www.wxwidgets.org/wxuniv.htm for more information). Advanced options ---------------------------------------------------------------- MONOLITHIC=1 Starting with version 2.5.1, wxWidgets has the ability to be built as several smaller libraries instead of single big one as used to be the case in 2.4 and older versions. This is called "multilib build" and is the default behaviour of makefiles. You can still build single library ("monolithic build") by setting MONOLITHIC variable to 1. USE_GUI=0 Disable building GUI parts of the library, build only wxBase components used by console applications. Note that if you leave USE_GUI=1 then both wxBase and GUI libraries are built. If you are building monolithic library, then you should set wxUSE_GUI to 1 in setup.h. USE_OPENGL=1 Build wxmsw25_gl.lib library with OpenGL integration class wxGLCanvas. You must also modify your setup.h to #define wxUSE_GLCANVAS 1. Note that OpenGL library is always built as additional library, even in monolithic build! USE_ODBC=1 Build two additional libraries in multilib mode, one with database classes and one with wxGrid database support. You must #define wxUSE_ODBC 1 in setup.h USE_HTML=0 Do not build wxHTML library. If MONOLITHIC=1, then you must also #define wxUSE_HTML 1 in setup.h. USE_XRC=0 Do not build XRC resources library. If MONOLITHIC=1, then you must also #define wxUSE_HTML 1 in setup.h. RUNTIME_LIBS=static Links static version of C and C++ runtime libraries into the executable, so that the program does not depend on DLLs provided with the compiler (e.g. Visual C++'s msvcrt.dll or Borland's cc3250mt.dll). Caution: Do not use static runtime libraries when building DLL (SHARED=1)! MSLU=1 Enables MSLU (Microsoft Layer for Unicode). This setting makes sense only if used together with UNICODE=1. If you want to be able to use Unicode version on Windows9x, you will need MSLU (Microsoft Layer for Unicode) runtime DLL and import lib. The former can be downloaded from Microsoft, the latter is part of the latest Platform SDK from Microsoft (see msdn.microsoft.com for details). An alternative implementation of import library can be downloaded from http://libunicows.sourceforge.net - unlike the official one, this one works with other compilers and does not require 300+ MB Platform SDK update. DEBUG_FLAG=0 DEBUG_FLAG=1 If set to 1, define __WXDEBUG__ symbol, append 'd' to library name and do sanity checks at runtime. If set to 0, don't do it. By default, this is governed by BUILD option (if 'debug', DEBUG_FLAG=1, if 'release' it is 0), but it is sometimes desirable to modify default behaviour and e.g. define __WXDEBUG__ even in release builds. DEBUG_INFO=0 DEBUG_INFO=1 Same as DEBUG_FLAG in behaviour, this option affects whether debugging information is included in the executable or not. VENDOR= Set this to a short string identifying your company if you are planning to distribute wxWidgets DLLs with your application. Default value is 'custom'. This string is included as part of DLL name. wxWidgets DLLs contain compiler name, version information and vendor name in them. For example wxmsw250_core_bcc_custom.dll is one of DLLs build using Borland C++ with default settings. If you set VENDOR=mycorp, the name will change to wxmsw250_core_bcc_mycorp.dll. CFG= Sets configuration name so that you can have multiple wxWidgets builds with different setup.h settings coexisting in same tree. See "Object and library directories" below for more information. Compiler specific options ---------------------------------------------------------------- * MinGW If you are using gcc-2.95 instead of gcc3, you must set GCC_VERSION to 2.95. In build\msw\config.gcc, change > GCC_VERSION = 3 to > GCC_VERSION = 2.95 * Visual C++ DEBUG_RUNTIME_LIBS=0 DEBUG_RUNTIME_LIBS=1 If set to 1, msvcrtd.dll is used, if to 0, msvcrt.dll is used. By default msvcrtd.dll is used only if the executable contains debug info and msvcrt.dll if it doesn't. It is sometimes desirable to build with debug info and still link against msvcrt.dll (e.g. when you want to ship the app to customers and still have usable .pdb files with debug information) and this setting makes it possible. Fine-tuning the compiler ---------------------------------------------------------------- All makefiles have variables that you can use to specify additional options passed to the compiler or linker. You won't need this in most cases, but if you do, simply add desired flags to CFLAGS (for C compiler), CXXFLAGS (for C++ compiler), CPPFLAGS (for both C and C++ compiler) and LDFLAGS (the linker). Object and library directories ---------------------------------------------------------------- All object files produced during library build are stored in a directory under build\msw. It's name is derived from build settings and CFG variable and from compiler name. Examples of directory names: build\msw\bcc_msw SHARED=0 build\msw\bcc_mswdll SHARED=1 build\msw\bcc_mswunivd SHARED=0, WXUNIV=1, BUILD=debug build\msw\vc_mswunivd ditto, with Visual C++ Libraries and DLLs are copied into subdirectory of lib directory with name derived from compiler and static/DLL setting and setup.h into directory with name that contains other settings: lib\bcc_msw lib\bcc_lib\msw\wx\setup.h lib\bcc_dll lib\bcc_dll\msw\wx\setup.h lib\bcc_lib lib\bcc_lib\mswunivd\wx\setup.h lib\vc_lib lib\vc_lib\mswunivd\wx\setup.h Each lib\ subdirectory has wx subdirectory with setup.h as seen above. This file is copied there from include\wx\msw\setup.h (and if it doesn't exist, from include\wx\msw\setup0.h) and this is the copy of setup.h that is used by all samples and should be used by your apps as well. If you are doing changes to setup.h, you should do them in this file, _not_ in include\wx\msw\setup.h. If you set CFG to something, the value is appended to directory names. E.g. for CFG=MyBuild, you'll have object files in build\msw\bcc_mswMyBuild build\msw\bcc_mswdllMyBuild etc. and libraries in lib\bcc_libMyBuild lib\bcc_dllMyBuild etc. By now it is clear what CFG is for: builds with different CFG settings don't share any files and they use different setup.h files. This allows you to e.g. have two static debug builds, one with wxUSE_SOCKETS=0 and one with sockets enabled (without CFG, both of them would be put into same directory and there would be conflicts between the files). General Notes ================================================================= - Debugging: under Windows 95, debugging output isn't output in the same way that it is under NT or Windows 3.1. Please see DebugView available from http://www.sysinternals.com.